The honest comparison

How we compare, in plain English.

Three honest comparisons, no jargon: us versus a generic AI chatbot, us versus the big chatbot tools, and the whole team one chatbot quietly replaces.

Us vs a generic AI chatbot.

Most chatbots guess when they don't know - that's how you get wrong hours, wrong prices, wrong promises. Ours reads your real business facts first, so the answer is true.

? Same question "ARE YOU OPEN SUNDAY?" THEM · ANY OTHER AI CHATBOT A typical chatbot NO BRAIN → IT GUESSES "Yes - open till 9pm, right across the state." ✗ INVENTED NEITHER IS TRUE US · ONLINE OPTIMISERS Our agent READS YOUR FACTS FIRST YOUR REAL FACTS "Open till 6pm, Tampa Bay. Book you in?" ✓ GROUNDED ? Same question "ARE YOU OPEN SUNDAY?" THEM · ANY OTHER CHATBOT A typical chatbot guesses "Open till 9pm, statewide." ✗ INVENTED US · ONLINE OPTIMISERS YOUR AGENT THE BRAIN "Open till 6pm, Tampa Bay." ✓ GROUNDED
The difference isn't a smarter model. It's that your agent reads your real facts before it speaks.

Us vs the big chatbot tools.

The honest version. "Generic AI chatbot" means tools like Tidio, Chatbase, or Voiceflow. "Inbox tools" means Intercom and Drift.

What matters Online Optimisers Generic AI chatbot Inbox tools
Answers from YOUR real business facts Reads your facts before every reply Guesses, or needs a knowledge base you build ~Only if you build + maintain the docs
A whole team of agents, not one bot 25+ roles across sales, support, ops One single bot One bot bolted onto a shared inbox
Books appointments + takes payment in chat Calendar + Stripe, inside the chat ~Usually a paid add-on ~Extra tools, extra cost
Edits your website for you Change copy, swap photos, publish Not a feature Not a feature
Flat price per location One flat fee, no surprises Per-message creep at real volume Per-seat + per-answer billing
We do the setup, you do nothing Live in days, zero buyer hours You build it (hours to days) You build it (often weeks)
Cancel anytime Month-to-month, data exportable ~Varies Annual lock-in is common
// THE PRICE, AT REAL VOLUME

At 30,000 messages a month: us, a flat fee, every month. Intercom's per-answer billing has been seen at $2,700. Tidio jumps from $49 to $749 at the tier you actually need. The setup labour never shows up on their spreadsheet - with us it's zero.

See all 16 platforms with real numbers →

What it actually costs you - money and time.

The same three camps, on price and commitment. "Cheap DIY tools" build-it-yourself; "Enterprise tools" are the big-ticket platforms.

What you pay Online Optimisers Cheap DIY tools Enterprise tools
Monthly price One flat fee per location Cheap sticker that creeps with usage $2,500 to $12,500+ a month
Who builds it We do - live in days You do (hours to days) They do (weeks to months)
Setup hours from you Zero Several, then ongoing tweaks Weeks of your team's time
Hidden costs None - it's flat Overage, branding-removal, add-ons Per-answer + per-seat billing
Contract Month-to-month, cancel anytime Varies Annual lock-in is common

The old way vs the Online Optimisers way.

Same everyday moments. What happens today, and what happens with an AI team on the job.

When this happens The old way With Online Optimisers
A lead messages at 11pm Sits unread till morning - they book a competitor Answered in seconds, booked while you sleep
Someone asks something you're not there for Missed, or a confident wrong guess Answered from your real facts, instantly
You need a price or photo changed on the site Email the web person, wait days Tell the chat - live in seconds
Chasing quotes and follow-ups Falls through the cracks when you get busy Followed up automatically, every time
Knowing where a lead came from An educated guess Tracked to the exact source

One chatbot replaces this whole team.

This is the job list a growing business usually hires for, one role at a time. Our agents cover all of it from day one - marketing that brings people in, sales that turns them into customers, ops that looks after them.

12 Marketing Bring people in
  • Content writer
  • SEO specialist
  • Social media manager
  • Email marketer
  • Ad copywriter
  • Brand voice editor
  • Local citations
  • Reviews manager
  • Outreach analyst
  • Newsletter editor
  • Video script writer
  • PR drafter
7 Sales Turn them into customers
  • Lead qualifier
  • Quote builder
  • Booking assistant
  • Objection handler
  • Follow-up rep
  • Pricing explainer
  • Close-the-deal rep
6 Business Ops Look after them
  • FAQ answerer
  • Order tracker
  • Refund handler
  • Complaint triage
  • Onboarding guide
  • Ops analyst

See it run against your real numbers.

30 minutes, screen-share, honest pricing on the call. We scope it against your actual lead volume, not a calculator.

Talk to your AI guys